What is a NAT type issue?

Going back to the previous console generation there were always people making a big deal about NAT types and making sure it was correct for online gaming. Even this generation on both Playstation 4 and Xbox One people are still trying to make sure their NAT type is correct. What is a NAT type and why is it so troublesome?

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Answer

There are 3 different NAT type and for most people, NAT 2 is the one you want. NAT type is essentially a score on how well you are going to be able to communicate with the network. Type 1 means you are directly connected without a router, which for most people is impossible. Type 2 means you are connected using a router and there are no issues with the connection. This is what most people need to have.

NAT Type 3 is the bad one and this means that there are some ports on your router that are blocking your connection with the outside world. Unless you open these ports, you will have some issues with your network connection to the game servers.

NAT is not an issue that is related to your game console and unless we completely change how we connect to game servers and the internet, NAT type will always be something that is important for online gaming.